Proposed, for board reviewFirst 90 days; first listening session within 30 days; identity statement published by day 60
Put gun owners in charge of Lock It Up
Invite hunters, a range operator, a gun shop owner, a veteran and a sheriff's representative onto a Lock It Up council with a written veto over storage materials and partner names, and publish a one-paragraph identity statement by day 60: pro responsible ownership, no position on Measure 114 or bans, with a firewall between the storage work and anything at the Legislature in Salem.
The messenger decides whether a storage message lands. A national survey of 6,200 gun owners and a small rural focus group study point the same way. In the survey, law enforcement and the military were the most preferred safe storage messengers, and physicians and celebrities the least. In focus groups with 32 rural Iowa farm and ranch parents who keep firearms, the sheriff’s office was the favored safety messenger, many also trusted wildlife agency staff, and health care workers, school staff and politically backed sources were seen as less credible. The founders are a counselor and an educator, so the structure must supply what they cannot.
Other places have done this. We borrow three habits from a Tennessee group formed after a school shooting: say plainly what you will not do, keep any policy list short and public, and count hunters as members. We do not adopt its policy list. Washington’s suicide-safer homes task force seated National Rifle Association and Second Amendment Foundation representatives on the suicide prevention and firearms subcommittee of a task force charged with developing dealer and range training. Central Oregon has the people: three Oregon Hunters Association chapters, the Redmond Rod and Gun Club, the Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association, veterans’ posts, and sheriffs’ offices and police departments, at least two of which are reported to give out free locks already.
Measure 114’s status is unresolved, rural Oregonians own firearms at higher rates than urban residents, and nearly half of Oregon gun owners told a 2022 survey that gun laws should be stricter. A written identity statement that says what the group will not do, signed by people with something to lose, is what would keep hunters in the room. A council with a real veto, not a seat for decoration, is what would make the statement believable.
Why we think it works
- Among 6,200 gun owners surveyed, law enforcement and military were the most preferred safe storage messengers and physicians and celebrities the least. (Rutgers University news, The Messenger Matters in Safe Gun Storage, Suicide Prevention..., strong evidence)
- In 2024 focus groups with 32 rural Iowa farm and ranch parents who keep firearms at home, local law enforcement such as the sheriff's department was the favored firearm safety messenger, many also saw Department of Natural Resources personnel as reliable, and teachers, healthcare professionals, university staff, celebrities and politically backed sources were seen as less credible. (Beyond Locks and Lectures: What Rural Parents Think Would Be Effective Firearm Safety M..., moderate evidence)
- Voices for a Safer Tennessee says it is pro responsible firearm ownership rather than opposed to guns, says many members of its coalition are avid hunters and gun owners, and names three policy priorities: expanded background checks, temporary transfer laws and secure storage of firearms. (Voices for a Safer Tennessee FAQs, moderate evidence)
- Washington's safe homes task force, created by a 2016 law and renamed the suicide-safer homes task force by Chapter 262, Laws of 2017 (E2SHB 1612), has a suicide prevention and firearms subcommittee that includes a National Rifle Association representative and a Second Amendment Foundation representative, and the task force as a whole is charged with developing online suicide awareness and prevention trainings for firearms dealers, range owners and their employees. (Engrossed Second Substitute House Bill 1612, Chapter 262, Laws of 2017 (Washington), strong evidence)
- In a June 2022 Oregon Values and Beliefs Center survey, 41 percent of rural Oregonians said they own a firearm compared with 24 percent of urban residents, and nearly half of Oregon gun owners said gun laws should be stricter nationally (46 percent) and in Oregon (44 percent). (Oregon Values and Beliefs Center release via FlashAlert: Guns and Regulations (survey J..., moderate evidence)
What we would do
- Within 30 days hold the first listening session in Madras or Prineville, not Bend, with the Bend, Redmond and Ochoco chapter presidents of the Oregon Hunters Association, the Redmond Rod and Gun Club board, the Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1643, the three county sheriffs and county commissioners; ask what they already do and what they would put their names on, and record no as an answer.
- Form the Lock It Up council, chaired by a gun owner from outside Bend, with a written veto over every Lock It Up material and over any use of a partner's name; clinicians serve as designers, funders and evaluators only.
- Adopt and publish the identity statement by day 60: pro responsible ownership, hunters and shooters welcome, no position on Measure 114, magazine limits, bans, acquisition, carry, hardware or dealer rules in year one, and an outcome focus on locked guns, early help and safe kids.
- Agree the firewall in writing: Lock It Up and Care Network materials never carry Advocate content; Advocate materials never borrow Lock It Up partners' names without written consent; the council can pause any Advocate material that names firearm legislation.
- Ask the Oregon Firearm Safety Coalition, Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership and industry programs such as Project ChildSafe to review and co-sign the first Lock It Up materials, and let each chapter and club choose which logos it carries.
- Say openly that any sheriff's representative sits on the lock side and that the group adopts no targets for the number of extreme risk protection order petitions filed; publicly thank whoever delivers locks, storage or funding, regardless of agency or party.
How we would know it is working
- Lock It Up council charter with a written veto adopted and invitations issued by day 90; seats, including a gun-owner chair, reported as filled or pending
- Identity and neutrality statement published on the website by day 60
- Number of gun clubs, ranges, shops and veterans' posts invited, and number signed on as named partners, reported at day 90
- Share of Lock It Up events held at gun-owner venues versus clinical or school venues
- Council audit each quarter: zero Advocate content on any Lock It Up or Care Network material
What could get in the way
- Two gun-owner seats on a board of five to seven is a minority that loses every vote, and the identity statement becomes decoration.
- The council, not the board, holds the written veto over Lock It Up materials and partner names. Washington put National Rifle Association and Second Amendment Foundation representatives on the firearms subcommittee of the task force charged with developing its dealer and range training.
- No position on Measure 114 or bans leaves the door open to everything else: dealer rules, waiting periods, carry restrictions, expansion of the protective order law. The Advocate pillar still exists.
- Publish the full year-one Advocate agenda before recruiting a single hunter, keep it short and public, name content limits rather than only legal limits, and limit protective order work to explaining the existing law from both sides.
- A sheriff's representative is the messenger gun owners trust most, and Deschutes County has been reported as among the state's most frequent users of the protective order law. Both are true at once.
- Say it openly. A sheriff's representative, if one joins, sits on the lock side of the house, Lock It Up materials carry no protective order content, and the group adopts no targets for petition counts anywhere.
- Some gun-rights organizations may decline to associate with a post-tragedy group at all, and a chapter president whose table carries the group's banner will get phone calls.
- The table is the chapter's table and the group is the supplier; chapter presidents get a veto over wording and branding; keep inviting, and thank in public whoever shows up.
Who we would work with: Oregon Hunters Association Bend, Redmond and Ochoco chapters, Redmond Rod and Gun Club, Central Oregon Shooting Sports Association, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 1643 and American Legion posts, Deschutes, Crook and Jefferson county sheriffs, Bend and Redmond police, Oregon Firearm Safety Coalition, Gun Owners for Responsible Ownership, Project ChildSafe (National Shooting Sports Foundation), Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife hunter education instructors